The Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) is an international research consortium striving to apply molecular biological advances to crop improvement for developing countries. Central to its activities is the creation of a next generation global crop information platform and network to share genetic resources, genomics, and crop improvement information. This system is being designed based on a comprehensive scientific domain object model and associated shared ontology. This model covers germplasm, genotype, phenotype, functional genomics, and geographical information data types needed in GCP research. This paper provides an overview of this modeling effort.